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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Cleaning the spice cabinet

I found a great weekly project meme. Love these memes that will keep us going and on the ball. I love the great article I found on her notebook of things to do. It was on the spice cabinet and if you think you are a pack rat you should see my spice cabinet. I wish I could take a picture but there was not a great light source there and so the picture did not turn out well. Here is the link to the notebook page that I learned all about the shelf life of spices and for how long to keep it for http://smallnotebook.org/2009/03/23/the-spice-cabinet-cleanout/

This great resource told me that I had to many for too long however none were as old as the writer of the original the guidelines will help me and others i know to keep it all together.

Using the guideline on shelf life of spices:

season blends: 2 years

herbs: 1-3 years

ground spice: 2-3 years

whole spices: 3-4 years

extracts: 4 years

I pulled all out of my cabinet and placed all on the kitchen table. I then inspected all dates, and got rid of those that did not fit in with the guidelines. I kept several of the shakers though since these are useful for other uses. I then was ready to place them back into the cabinet. I decided I would separate the baking spices from the cooking spices. The boxes and tins from the shakers. This was done easily and looked great. I also created a wooden crate of spices used daily and placed in separate where it was easy to get to.

because i think it is frugal to use what you have and know when to use it I am listing this at tightwad teusday meme hosted by being frugal .net

I loved doing this project and if you want to complete one yourself check out the blog The Mother Load here and see what she has in her notebook as well as what others are doing.

This is also the first time that I am participating in the monthly organizing roundup on the blog I'm an Organized Junkie here

I have also added this post to the Homemaker Haven post as well. You can add a project of yours as well here

Thanks for sharing this info! I never remember when to purge what, and so I have to go to the internet, find blogs like yours, and read up! My spice "space" cleaning is on my to-do list. Thanks for getting me up to it!